Distributed Leadership in the Education Sector
The majority of organizations endeavor to ensure that they put in place structures and functions that necessitate achievement of their core objectives. Failure in undertaking such measures leads to the organization registering poor outcomes or unexpected negative results that have severe effects on the industry. While the educational sector has and continues to experience various challenges, one of the major problems that has caused serious results in the sector is the limitation of distributed leadership applications, especially as it relates to decision-making in Saudi Education Ministry.
Although distributed leadership has gained prominence and become a favorite leadership approach that is used around the world, in Saudi Arabia, the situation in the education sector is different. Instead of shifting to a more systemic perspective where leadership and decision making is conceived as a collective social process, in SA, many leaders have opted to maintain the traditional leadership approach, which has not been yielding functional outcomes, especially on matters related to the implementation of decisions. This problem has become so intense in the country that many of the departmental leaders in the education sector believe that their efforts towards advancing the sector seem not to count and that they are not considered as part of decision-making process. This problem raises serious questions, which at best may be addressed by the following research question, “How does the limitation of distributed leadership applications affect education training and standards in SA?” The Training Department Administration (TDA) leader in practicing the leadership application is excluding the department’s members from sharing the decision-making process.
In addressing the problem above, it is essential to gather the necessary information required. From the onset, data from the TDA members will be needed as these are the persons directly responsible for the creation of curriculum courses and training members in the education ministry. The collection of this information will be relevant to the identified problem owing to the fact that it will bring to the fore the real challenges that the TDA members are facing in addressing leadership challenges in the Saudi Arabia Education Ministry. Therefore, retrieving the facts on how the TDA are involved in the decision-making process in SA is another kind of information that will be needed to understand how these employees in the education sector in the country are involved in the decision making policy. This information is significant for it allows readers to appreciate how decision-making policies are arrived at in the education sector in the nation. According to educationists, inclusivity in the decision-making process in the education sector creates and develops goodwill among the staff within the ministry, making it possible for the department to achieve its projected objectives with ease and avoids unnecessary tension and confrontations.
Information from the current leaders on how they address decision-making and any emerging challenges within the ministry is another set of information that might be needed in solving the problem stated herein.
According to management experts, decision making is a continuous process that takes place in organizations. As such, there is the need for the leadership of organizations to identify the practical and convenient approaches that can be used in their institutions towards arriving at sound decisions. This information is crucial since it will highlight any existing gaps within the education sector that affects proper decision making, which has significant consequences. An understanding of the organization’s hierarchy will help in establishing the leadership structure and create a basis for analyzing the challenges within the organization and develop the possible solutions to existing problems.
